When I was four my family went to a holiday park in Westport. The drive from Dublin was long and dull, but as soon as the car doors opened my sister and I tore off to explore with our two cousins. We loved the freedom of being “down the country” and raced around like lunatics, climbing every tree, kicking every loose stone, chasing every cat or dog and poking our noses where we should not have.
The holiday park had a few old-fashioned horse-drawn caravans, and as part of a game of hide-and-seek I clambered into one and discovered a nice soft seat, perfect for napping. Consternation ensued. “Where’s your sister? You were supposed to be minding her – she’s only small.” I was oblivious to the chaos my absence had caused until I was poked in the arm by an angry sister.
My parents joked that I was never quite the same after that day. I’ve always been a little wild and free, uninhibited by rules and convention. Somehow my parents managed to tame me, harnessing my zeal and energy into a good Leaving Cert and a college education, and ultimately steering me on course for a career.
But she was still in there, that wild girl with a love of open roads, caravans and exploration. I worked diligently and ended up where I was supposed to: with a good job, nice house, a decent car and enough savings to pay for a holiday every year. I made the best of my annual leave, often storing up days for a whole year so I could take a month off to go to Australia, where my sister now lives. I was pretty content with my lot. And then I met him.
Him. The Lithuanian. I fell for him the moment I saw him. He was tall and tanned, muscles bursting from a snug white T-shirt. He’d been in the army, had lived in Portugal and had travelled extensively with his own business. He was only in Ireland for a brief stint, so I pounced.
His brief stint in Ireland turned into 10 years. He got a job in Dublin, and we married, got the nice house and took interesting holidays. Then the recession hit, and he was made redundant. He retrained as a physical therapist, opening his own practice. But times were tough, and money was tight: not an ideal time to be starting a business.
A few things happened in relatively quick succession that cemented our decision to leave Ireland. We both lost our mothers, brutally reminding us of our impermanence. We would linger no more: life was ours for the taking. Then my employer announced voluntary redundancies. I had worked there for 13 years, and the payment was more than enough to let us try something new.
We still didn’t know what we wanted to do next, but, not wanting to waste any time, we decided to think and travel simultaneously. We bought a small camper van and began a tour of Europe, planning our route around food – another of my consuming passions.
I got my first Read-it-Yourself cookbook when I was about five and haven't looked back since. I think that in part my love of travel comes from this love of food; travel provides so many opportunities to try diverse and interesting foods. I started my blog, My Food Odyssey, as a way of both recording and sharing the fabulous food we experienced on our tour.
Three months in we decided to take time out in Lithuania. Our camper van had no air conditioning, and we were sweltering in the Spanish heat. Italy, next on our itinerary, would be just as hot, so we elected to wait out the summer in the relative cool of Lithuania and return to our trip in the autumn.
We never left. We both fell in love with Lithuania. Arunas was so happy to be home after such a long absence. Friends and family were so welcoming: we had an instant community around us. We bought a small house, with just enough land to grow fruit and vegetables, and keep animals for eggs and meat. We could live quite self-sufficiently, something we both wanted.
I relished the opportunity to learn more about Lithuanian food. The ingredients aren't that different from Ireland, with lots of pork, potatoes, cabbage and root vegetables. It is the application of these ingredients that is completely different. The cooking could be described as frugal, extracting the maximum flavour and nutrition from the least expensive ingredients.
While I don’t know a single vegetarian here, there are many vegetarian dishes, with a simple curd cheese being used in place of meat in many cases. Even where meat is used proportions tend to be smaller, with a greater leaning towards vegetables and starches such as bread and rice.
It is still quite typical, particularly in the country, for people to grow their own vegetables and perhaps rear pigs. Once harvested, these products need to be made to last through the harsh winter, so home processing – pickling, fermenting, curing and smoking – are very popular. Where in Ireland we eat thickly sliced boiled bacon with a side of cabbage and potatoes, Lithuanians would be far more likely to eat a bacon and sauerkraut soup containing fried lardons of smoked bacon.
We work where we can and want to start our own business. We travel whenever the weather or the growing season permits, happy to drive and sleep in the back of our Ford Galaxy. (The camper is now gone, unfortunately.)
What we will do next we don’t know. I imagine we’ll stay a few more years, but I have a feeling our itchy feet might take us on the road again.
